Land of Lincoln

Where we are on Feb. 12, 2018

Monday, February 12, 2018

Almost 200 years ago, in the spring of 1828, a young man took a boat down the Mississippi River to New Orleans on a job that promised a good payday. He came across a slave auction there and watched with amazement--disgusted amazement--as a "comely mulatto girl" was brought to be sold. The story goes that she was marched up and down in front of buyers, who pinched her flesh and commented on the way she walked. She was trotted about, like an animal, to see how she moved. The young man from the Midwest seethed.